Menu

…For in Them Lie the Seeds of Destiny

Yesterday I watched curiously as Lillian carried her tortilla with her into the bath tub, dunked it into the water and ate every last slimy morsel. Clearly there is more than one way to eat a tortilla. There is also more than one way to check a baby’s diaper. My mother in law slides her finger into the rear of the diaper and then pulls it out to examine the evidence. I prefer to use my eyes or nose for that particular diagnostic. The point is, everyone approaches the world with their own way of doing things and there is a place in the world for all different kinds of methods.

Lillian’s favorite movie at the moment is Babe, which means that I have become one of the world’s leading experts on the film. Each time I watch the movie I find myself waiting to hear the narrator deliver this great line at the moment when Farmer Hoggett decides definitively that he’s going to train Babe the pig for the sheepdog trials.

In the movie and even more in the book (expert, remember?), the point seems to be that your traits which would seem to disqualify you for something can actually lead you to develop innovative ways to overcome your shortcomings and you might actually end up being really good at that thing you ought to have been bad at.

This idea has given me so much solace. I started taking classes to become a teacher last year and I have this great hope for the future which is always tempered by the negative thoughts in the back of my mind attacking my character and highlighting my fears. Still, I can’t shake this crazy idea that I’d love to be a teacher.

My hope is that if there’s room for a pig in the world of shepherding, then there’s also room in the world for an over-thinking, introvert teacher.